The Eyes of Asia | Page 4

must seriously consider our arrangements in all respects--in our houses
as well as in our fields, etc., etc. Otherwise we become nothing. We
have been deceived by the nature of the English. They have not at any
time shown us anything of their possessions or their performances. We
are not even children beside them. They have dealt with us as though
they were themselves children talking chotee boli [little talk]. In this
manner the ill-informed have been misled. Nothing is known in India
of the great strength of this people. Make that perfectly clear to all fools.
Why should we who serve the Government have the blood of the
misinformed on our heads when they behave foolishly? This people
have all the strength. There is no reason except the nature of the
English that anything in their dominions should stand up which has
been ordered to lie down. It is only their soft nature which saves evil
from destruction. As the saying is, "We thought it was only an armed
horseman. Behold, it is an elephant bearing a tower!"
It is in my mind that the glory of us Rajputs has become diminished
since the old days. In the old days, our Princesses charged in battle
beside their men, and the name of the clans was great. Then all Rajputs
were brothers and sisters. How has this come about? What man of us
now relies upon the advice of his womenkind in any matter outside? In
this country and in France the women understand perfectly what is
needful in the day of trial. They say to their men: "Add to the renown
of your race. We will attend to the rest through the excellent education
which this just Government has caused us to receive." Thus the men's
hearts are lightened when they go to the war. They confide securely in
their well educated women. How is it with our horses? Shape and size

from the sire: temper and virtue from the dam. If the mare endures
thirst, the colt can run without water. Man's nature also draws from the
spindle-side. Why have we allowed forgetfulness to impair our memory?
This was well known in the old days. In this country arrangements for
washing clothes exist in almost every house, such as tubs, boards, and
irons, and there is a machine to squeeze water out of the washed clothes.
They do not conceal their astonishment at our methods. Our women
should be taught. Only by knowledge is anything achieved. Otherwise
we are as children running about naked under the feet of grown men
and women.
See what our women have already accomplished by education! The
Thakore Sahib of Philawat was refused leave from the Government to
go to the war, on account of his youth. Yet his sister, who wedded the
Rana of Haliana had prepared a contingent of infantry out of her own
dower-villages. They were set down in the roll of the Princes'
contingents as stretcher-bearers: they being armed men out of the desert.
She sent a telegram to her brother, commissioning him to go with them
as Captain of stretcher-bearers: he being a son of the Sword for seventy
generations. Thus cleverly he received permission from the
Government to go. When they reached France he stole them out of the
camp, every one of his sister's men, and joined himself to the Rajah of
Kandesur's contingent. Those two boys together made their name bright
in the trenches. The Philawat boy was hit twice and came to hospital
here. The Government sent him a sealed letter by messenger where he
lay. He had great fear of it, because what he and Kandesur had done
was without orders. He expected a reprimand from the Government and
also from his uncle because of the succession. But the letter was an
announcement of decoration from the Shahzada himself, and when he
had read it, the child hid his face beneath the sheets and wept for joy. I
saw and heard this from my very bed in the hospital. So his Military
Cross and the rest was due to the Maharanee of Haliana, his sister.
Before her marriage she attended instruction in England at the great
school for maidens called Ghatun [Girton?]. She goes unveiled among
Englishmen, laying hold upon her husband's right arm in public
assemblies in open daylight. And Haliana is sunborn.[1] Consider it!
Consider it!

[1] The royal clans of the Rajputs derive their descent from the Sun.
Do not be concerned if I do not return. I have seen all the reports of all
the arrangements made for burial, etc., etc., in this country. They are
entirely in accordance with our faith. My youth and old age have been
given to the service of the Government, and if the Government can